This actually may be a rare case where I prefer the remake to the original, which is strange to say considering the remake stars El Brendel. What makes it even stranger is that I feel like I should prefer this short. The production values are higher, there’s actual background music, the monster looks more terrifying (especially at the end when it shows its skeleton) and there are some really good ideas here; I like the idea of hitting every passerby in the leg to find who has a wooden leg, and the idea of mixing up the cat signal is good as well.
So why don’t I prefer this? I think part of it is the initial exposition where they introduce the villain; in the sense that it’s really boring and feels like it goes on forever. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the scientists in the remake, but at least their parts diminish quickly. The same applies to the cat signal part; it starts off great with Monte and Tom bumping into each other, but after that, the timing feels off and it gets stale pretty quick. Possibly one of the big reasons I don’t like it as much is the whole Chinatown aspect, and I’m not entirely certain why it bothers me. Like Paul said, most of the actual Chinese people here are not portrayed as villains, and heck, even one of the guys gets a nice dig at Monte for his horrible attempt at communicating. I think the reason why I have an issue with it is just the idea of Monte and Tom specifically targeting innocent Chinese people when it comes to hitting their legs. Compare that to Keaton’s THE CAMERAMAN or Langdon’s FEET OF MUD. Yeah, you could maybe argue that those are more racist, but Keaton and Langdon are basically just getting caught up in the antics surrounding them; they’re not actively going out of their way to attack every Chinese person they see, which is exactly what happens here. Even when Monte and Tom attack a cop by mistake, the cop just immediately blames the Chinese person. Like I said, I think the idea of attacking people’s legs until they find the wooden one is a very funny idea, but specifically targeting Chinese people only kind of kills it for me. But again, I can still see arguments for it not actually being that bad. We do often have to keep in mind the times when watching these shorts, but every now and then, there’s a case where the stereotypes are too much and ruin the films for me. I can get past the stereotypes in THE CAMERAMAN and FEET OF MUD and still enjoy them. For whatever reason, in MIDNIGHT BLUNDERS, I can’t.
